If you’re a Buffalo Sabres fan and a sucker for random factoids, today is your lucky day.
Most Sabres fans know that Gilbert Perreault wore number 11, at least partly because that was what the roulette wheel landed on in 1970 and that one of the most popular players in team history, Taro Tsujimoto, didn’t exist. But what if we wanted to get obscure? After all, some of the most interesting tidbits are the ones that stand out the very least.
Here are five facts about the team that might come as a surprise, even to the more dedicated side of the fanbase.
Seven Former Sabres Have Been Head Coach
In the Sabres’ 50+ years of existence, there’s been something of a trend when it comes to the head coaches they’ve hired. 20 different men have served in that capacity over the years, with some even having multiple tours of duty. But did you know that of those 20, seven of them had also played for the Sabres during their career? Floyd Smith (also the team’s first captain) was the trendsetter, leading his team to the 1975 Stanley Cup Final in his very first season.
Billy Inglis was the next, coming on in 1978. Jim Schoenfeld took the reins in 1985 but was fired after just 43 games in a disastrous season. Craig Ramsay finished out the 1986-87 season but was not retained after the Sabres finished last in the NHL. Rick Dudley came aboard in 1989 and served until he was fired in 1991. Lindy Ruff, the most notable example, was hired ahead of the 1997-98 season and held the role for a team-record 16 years before he was dismissed in 2013. Finally, Hall of Famer Phil Housley was hired in 2017 and served for two years.
If we want to get technical, current assistant Matt Ellis became the eighth on Dec.29, 2021, when he filled in for Don Granato, who was in COVID protocol. Additionally, though neither of them made it to the Sabres, Ted Nolan and Dan Bylsma spent time with the Rochester Americans in the AHL as well.
It’s evident that the team has preferred familiarity when selecting its coaches over the years, and who is more familiar than someone who once wore the team’s jersey?
Only One New York Captain?
The Sabres are one of three NHL teams in the State of New York and the second-oldest, entering the league 44 years after the Original Six’s New York Rangers but two years before the New York Islanders. Over their history, many have had the honor of serving as the Sabres’ captain. But did you know that, until very recently, none of their captains had ever been a New York State native?
For starters, only six of the 28 men to wear the “C” for the Sabres have even American. After their first seven captains were Canadian, then-general manager Gerry Meehan finally broke the trend in 1991 when he made Minnesota’s Mike Ramsey the first US-born captain in team history. Pat LaFontaine of Michigan succeeded Ramsey after he was traded the following year and held the role until 1997. Connecticut’s Chris Drury became the third when he was named rotating captain twice in the 2003-04 season, but it wasn’t until Brian Gionta signed in 2014 that a New Yorker finally took the role.
Gionta was a fitting choice to receive the distinction. Having grown up in nearby Rochester and bringing the Stanley Cup there in 2003, he was a familiar name to Western New Yorkers and about as close to a hometown player as they could have gotten at the time. He held the role for three seasons before retiring, and he stayed local by joining the Sabres as a developmental coach before Niagara University named him their Director of Player Development this past January.
Jack Eichel (Massachusetts) followed him as captain in 2018, and Kyle Okposo (also of Minnesota) succeeded Eichel in 2022. Syracuse, NY’s Alex Tuch appears to be the favorite to follow Okposo in the captaincy. Will he be their second New York-born captain?
Buffalo Has Won Every Award- Except One
Though some of the greatest players in NHL history have worn the Buffalo blue and gold, it still might come as a surprise that the Sabres have won a considerable amount of accolades over the years. Yes, the Stanley Cup still alludes them, but the team’s trophy case is quite stacked in spite of that. In fact, they’ve won almost every individual NHL Award that is voted on (statistical awards notwithstanding).
Gilbert Perreault, Tom Barrasso, and Tyler Myers have won the Calder Trophy as Rookie of the Year, while Barrasso, Dominik Hasek, and Ryan Miller won the Vezina Trophy as Goaltender of the Year. Craig Ramsay and Michael Peca each won the Frank Selke Trophy as Best Defensive Forward, while Don Luce and LaFontaine each were awarded the Bill Masterton Trophy for perseverance and dedication.
In addition to his six Vezina wins, Hasek also won the Hart Trophy as NHL MVP and the Lester Pearson Trophy as MVP voted by the players in consecutive years. Rob Ray’s off-ice humanitarian work earned him the King Clancy Memorial Trophy, while Nolan and his successor Ruff both won the Jack Adams Award as Coach of the Year.
As a result, the only individual piece of NHL hardware that the Sabres have not yet claimed is the James Norris Trophy for Defenseman of the Year, something that’s a bit of a surprise given the many talented blueliners they’ve had over the years. Rasmus Dahlin was not nominated for the award this past season despite the excellent numbers he put up, but he looks like a surefire future winner, and it would be the final jewel in the crown.
A 30-Goal Season From A Defenseman?
What’s funny is that, despite the team never having won the Norris Trophy winner, the Sabres had one defenseman who achieved a feat arguably even more impressive feat than that. A 30-goal season by a defender has only happened 17 times in NHL history, accomplished by just seven players.
Though they’ve never had a Norris winner, one of those seven did so in a Sabres uniform. Phil Housley recorded 31 goals and 77 points during his sophomore 1983-84 season, something that more than likely would have won him the Norris that year had Paul Coffey of the Edmonton Oilers not scored 40. However, it did earn him the distinction of being the youngest defenseman to do so in NHL history, as he was just 20 years old at the time.
It’s a further testament to how much of a force Housley was throughout his career with the Sabres. He scored 20 or more goals five times with them and nearly reached 30 again in the 1987-88 season when he finished with 29. Though he retired in 2003, he’s still the fourth-highest-scoring blueliner in NHL history.
A Season For Ages (And The Record Books)
When looking at any team’s all-time statistics for scoring, the record-breaking performances tend to be scattered in terms of years. Some stand the test of time, while some fall more quickly. But in the case of the Sabres, that logic doesn’t apply. When looking at the team’s single-season records for goals, assists, and points, one thing stands out: they were all set in the same season.
The 1992-93 season was quite the odd one for the Sabres, maybe their strangest ever. They finished just two games over a .500 winning percentage and barely qualified for the postseason, entering as the last seed in the East. Based on that, it’d be easy to assume that the team did just barely enough to squeak by and had a number of players who underperformed. That was not the case. If the dynamite duo of Alexander Mogilny and Pat LaFontaine had been born the season prior, this was the year that it took off, as they combined for a whopping 275 points.
It was Mogilny’s fourth year in the NHL, and though his numbers had been strong already, he went out and proved exactly why the Sabres organization went to so much trouble to get him. After scoring 39 goals the year before, he exploded for a Sabres-record 76, which tied for the NHL lead with a then-rookie Teemu Selanne. He wouldn’t have been able to do it with LaFontaine’s assistance (quite literally), as his Sabres-record 95 helpers made the Russian’s job much easier.
Related: Buffalo Sabres’ Top-6 Forwards Need to Step Up
In the end, Mogilny finished with 127 points to LaFontaine’s Sabres-record 148, putting them second and seventh respectively in the league that year. Their team would not have gotten as far as it did without them that season, and it’s proof of how brilliant they were together. Put Mogilny in the Hall of Fame already.
Know any other obscure Sabres hockey facts that I missed? Do you think another former Sabre will coach the team one day? Will a native Buffalonian one day become the team’s captain? What’s your favorite piece of random trivia about the team?